Schemes run by Joan Burton ‘cost more than Fás’

A Government review has questioned "poor" results from schemes run under the responsibility of Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton to help unemployed people into work.

The review also highlighted how initiatives in Ms Burton’s department cost more to run than those at Fás, the former State training body. Such schemes include Community Employment, which has a budget this year of €358 million.

The review was carried out by officials in the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service, which is attached to the Department of Public Expenditure.

While pointing out that their work does not necessarily represent the policy positions of departments, Ministers or the Government, the reviewers said exchequer spending on “active labour market programmes” amounted to some €1.5 billion last year .

“Expenditure of this size can only be justified if performance represents value for money,” they said.

“In the case of some of Ireland’s active labour market programmes, there is clearly room for improvement.

“Even for those better-performing schemes, the realities of resource constraints cannot be ignored and measurement of their performance must be cognisant of their costs.”

Concern
The reviewers expressed concern about the effectiveness of some schemes on offer from the Department of Social Protection. "Certain programmes, with high costs per participant, have poor employment outcomes when compared with Live Register claimants," they said.

“Overall, despite their poor subsequent employment outcomes, the activation schemes provided by Department of Social Protection are much more costly to the exchequer with the cost per person on all Department of Social Protection schemes, with the exception of Back to Work, higher than those provided by Fás.

“This is despite the fact their performance outcomes are relatively poor.”

Response
Ms Burton's spokesman said in response that an overhaul of the Community Employment scheme in 2012 had delivered annual savings of some €10 million.

“As well as the social and community value of Community Employment, which is often overlooked by analysts (but not by the communities themselves), the Community Employment programme has already been reviewed and improved.”